Man City v Sheffield Utd, Villa v Burnley and more: Premier League clockwatch – live | Premier League

51mins: Jack Grealish is going off, which seems early, perhaps a little knock? Oscar Bobb is on.

We don’t have an answer on the Dyche issue, but here’s a nice story from Tom Williams:

The Sean Deisshhh/Dyke issue reminds me of when I met Mark Gatiss on a train in to south Wales. I said to him in the bar carriage (now sadly gone on First Great Western!): “Excuse me, are you Mark Gay-tiss?” He congratulated me on the audacity of pronouncing the first syllable of his first name correctly, as many opt for ‘Gat-iss’. I thought he might be going down to watch Newport County in action, but apparently he was off to film Dr Who. Likely story.

Peeeeep! Peeeep!

Query for the readers from Phil Woolf:

I’m currently laid up with post-Christmas flu and enjoying the Everton shindig. Do you or any of the readers know why does every single commentator mispronounce Sean Dyche’s surname? He has gone on record as it’s pronounced “Dike”, so why all this sibilant pussyfooting around with “Deischhh” and the likes?

I had no idea it wasn’t “Deischhh”. Anyone else?

National Leaue half-time scores

Scottish half-time scores

Premier League half-time scores

Half-time: Manchester City 1-0 Sheffield United

44min: Rare chance for United as William Osula sees his goalbound effort blocked by Manuel Akanji and turned behind for a corner.

Goal! Aston Villa 2-1 Burnley (Diaby 42)

Goal! Crystal Palace 2-1 Brentford (Eze 39)

We have a VAR check at Villa Park where Burnley have the ball in the net. Lyle Foster finishes well, but he is very narrowly offside.

Kevin Wilson poses an interesting question via email:

So if Palace replace Hodgson with Cooper, presumably to play a ‘better’ brand of football, with how many games left will they reappoint Hodgson when they’re genuinely in relegation danger?

This is the Selhurst Park purgatory, I’m fairly sure that Steve Parish is trying to clone Roy Hodgson to continue this cycle until the end of time.

Goal! Aston Villa 1-1 Burnley (Amdouni 31)

Goal! Aston Villa 1-0 Burnley (Baily 28)

Goal! Wolves 1-0 Everton (Kilman 25)

23min: This won’t be a huge surprise but City have 85% possesion in the last 10 minutes.

21min: Chance for Bernardo Silva as he gets slipped in but from a tight angle on the edge of the six-yard box his shot is saved by Wes Foderingham away for a corner.

No goals yet at Station Park where Forfar take on East Fife, but Livingstone are trailing 2-0 at Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership.

Goal! Manchester City 1-0 Sheffield United (Rodri, 14)

Goal! Crystal Palace 1-1 Brentford (Olise 14)

11min: City are camped in the Blades’ half but not really creating anything. Chris Wilder’s side are camped deep and soaking up the pressure well. In short, nothing is happening.

Few early goals in Scotland. In the Scottish Championship, Dunfermline are 2-0 up at Ayr United, in League One it is Falkirk 1-0 Stirling Albion and Montrose 1-0 Cove Rangers.

Goal! Crystal Palace 0-1 Brentford (Lewis-Potter, 2)

4min: Not a lot going on at the Etihad to be honest. Slight scare for Ederson as he grabs an aimless and nearly carries it into his own net.

We have an early goal at Selhurst Park, or do we? Keane Lewis-Potter thinks he has Brentford ahead but we have a lengthy VAR check for offside going on. More on that as we get it.

Peeeeeep!

Follow-up from Jeff:

I thought of Brighton when I wrote previous email. It has mixed results for them… Need very talented players to succeed at it.

I guess it comes down to your definition of success? I would say both Villa and Brighton are currently both enjoying life.

Predictions time…

Time to make myself look a fool, but here we go:

Aston Villa 3-0 Burnley

Crystal Palace 0-1 Brentford

Manchester City 4-0 Sheffield United

Wolves 1-1 Everton

I’ll revisit these at full-time if I’m correct, otherwise we’ll pretend it never happened.

Proper football email from Jeff Sax:

Last time Villa played they shipped three goals which were due to mistakes while passing out from the back. When is this nonsense going to stop?

I’m a Brighton fan, Jeff, so I hope never.

Not sure what this has to do with this afternoon’s football, but it has been dominating my doom scrolls so I’ll share. So, it’s easy to laugh at US sports culture with its dull chants, ‘world champions’ and Todd Boehly but when it comes to celebrating adverts Americans are unparalleled. Here is a Pop-Tart mascot celebrating its own death while being slowly lowered into a giant toaster at the end of a college football game, because sponsorship. As far as I’m aware, West Brom’s ‘Boiler Man’ never exploded on live TV so this is now my favourite mascot moment of all time. Anyone care to raise it?

Because I failed so miserably to preview the action north of the border, Simon McMahon has emailed in a handy guide:

In Scotland, Celtic are currently leading 2-1, but hanging on, against 10-man Rangers with just a few minutes left. Later, it’s Aberdeen v St. Mirren and Hearts v Ross County. In the Scottish Championship, Dundee United beat Partick Thistle 3-0 at Tannadice last night to move to within two points of leaders Raith, who host Arbroath today. In Scottish League Two, it’s the one clockwatchers have been waiting all year for, Forfar v East Fife. A nine goal thriller perhaps…?

I simply cannot believe I overlooked Forfar v East Fife on the fixture list. Old Firmers can get the last of the action here:

He’s got his lid done for the big day too:

If you are not across what is going on at Kenilworth Road then I would suggest checking in with Rob Smyth’s MBM:

The BIG news from that lot is that Kevin De Bruyne is back on the bench for City, because they are a down-on-their-luck club in need of a break.

Wolves v Everton

Wolves: Jose Sa, Kilman, Dawson, Gomes, Nelson Semedo, Joao Gomes, Doyle, Ait Nouri, Hwang, Sarabia, Matheus Cunha. Subs: Doherty, Santiago Bueno, Traore, Pedro Neto, Hugo Bueno, Kalajdzic, Bentley, Bellegarde, Hodge.

Everton: Pickford, Patterson, Keane, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Harrison, Garner, Onana, McNeil, Calvert-Lewin. Subs: Danjuma, Virginia, Beto, Andre Gomes, Godfrey, Coleman, Chermiti, Hunt, Dobbin.

Manchester City v Sheffield United

Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Akanji, Ake, Gvardiol, Kovacic, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Foden, Grealish, Alvarez. Subs: Dias, Phillips, De Bruyne, Ortega, Gomez, Matheus Luiz, Bobb, Lewis, Hamilton.

Sheffield United: Foderingham, Baldock, Robinson, Trusty, Bogle, Vinicius Souza, Norwood, Thomas, Ben Slimane, Brooks, Osula. Subs: Adam Davies, Brewster, McBurnie, Archer, Traore, Osborn, Larouci, Norrington-Davies, Seriki.

Crystal Palace v Brentford

Crystal Palace: Henderson, Clyne, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell, Lerma, Richards, Eze, Olise, Mateta, Ayew. Subs: Tomkins, Matheus Franca, Schlupp, Hughes, Edouard, Ahamada, Matthews, Riedewald, Ozoh.

Brentford: Flekken, Jorgensen, Collins, Pinnock, Roerslev, Jensen, Norgaard, Janelt, Ghoddos, Lewis-Potter, Wissa. Subs: Maupay, Onyeka, Strakosha, Damsgaard, Peart-Harris, Yarmolyuk, Olakigbe, Brierley, Adedokun.

Aston Villa v Burnley

Aston Villa: Martinez, Konsa, Diego Carlos, Lenglet, Alex Moreno, Bailey, McGinn, Douglas Luiz, Ramsey, Diaby, Watkins. Subs: Torres, Chambers, Zaniolo, Duran, Dendoncker, Marschall, Iroegbunam, Proctor.

Burnley: Trafford, Vitinho, O’Shea, Beyer, Taylor, Odobert, Berge, Brownhill, Gudmundsson, Foster, Amdouni. Subs: Rodriguez, Roberts, Redmond, Ramsey, Ndayishimiye, Bruun Larsen, Delcroix, Obafemi, Muric.

Who is ready for some team news? Well, I am…

Preamble